Over 90 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) and forensic branch officials across all major cities in India, have successfully undergone a five-day special training. This is to improve their skills and professional efficiency in solving emerging crimes related to developing technology such as cybercrimes, dark web, and virtual currencies.

Speaking on Friday at a concluding party of the intensive training programme, Special DG Aruna Rao Mohan said the training covered different topics mainly on collection of dark web and cyber evidence, as well as, investigation and preservation of cyber-related intelligence among other topics.

She further said that the already trained DSPs and forensic branch officials were also taken through a unique training on numerous investigating and forensic instruments which are expected to be important tools in this era of a developing and evolving technology.

Under the Commission for Protection of Civilians, Women and Children (CPCWC) Home Ministry of Government of India planned for the training covering a wide variety of topics and subtopics recommended by different law enforcement agencies as well as extracted from investigation reports. These included,

Previous dark web and cybercrime cases that lead to conviction were shared and used as a case study. The training was conducted at Bhaunri, the cyber headquarters.

The Union Home Ministry of Government of India have recently announced the State Cyber Headquarters as the main agency mandated with planning, organizing, and training of trainers (TOT) from all major cities in the country. The training is expected to enhance skills with regard to penetrating the dark web and investigating cybercrimes which are on the increase. The participants of the training were from all the major cities in the country.

Different Ministries and agencies in India have collaborated in the fight against cybercrimes through training, across the law enforcement agencies in the country. Last month, the UT police announced plans to hire a junior forensics consultant to enhance the ability and competence of police in tackling cybercrimes against children and women.

Under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) Scheme of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India is committed to reducing cases of cybercrimes reported annually. The scheme includes setting up an online portal for reporting and filing complaints related to cybercrimes and establishing a cybercrime forensic training laboratory.

Ministry of Electronics and Information in India (MeitY) has also closely collaborated with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) to set up forensic laboratories in all major cities for training and capacity building of police officers in cybercrime investigation.

Another programme under the National Information Security Education & Awareness (ISEA) is expected to train over a hundred thousand people, not just police officers, by 2020 on internet investigation and cyber forensics. “These training sessions have been ongoing in all states for some time now despite the many challenges,” said Dr. Triveni Singh, superintendent of police, Uttar Pradesh Police.

Kunal Kumar, the chief technology officer at Digital Task Force, a cyber-security company explained why it is important to regularly update and upskill police officers on emerging and ever-evolving technologies. “States such as Delhi and Maharashtra have good infrastructure in terms of technology, even though not at par with the technology industry but we still have a lot of cybercrimes cases reported,” he said.

According to the latest update, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reported 27,482 cases of cybercrimes between January and June last year.